The Dark Angel, An Avenger
by TardisBlueStar
Summary: A strange woman with no memory of who she is hides a darkness inside. However, Nick Fury has called her to be an Avenger.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue **

Helen ambled slowly into her cold home, feeling isolated more than ever. The Avengers, Nick Fury, Thor, Loki, Bruce Banner… Everyone that had taken part in the adventure she just arrived from had made her feel alive again. Helen sat down on her low bed, feeling truly dead as she laid there. She closed her eyes and commanded memories of her time as a hero alongside the most memorable people she would ever meet, hoping she could feel alive again as she dwelled on the memories.


	2. Chapter 1: A Visit to Calcutta

Chapter One: A Visit to Calcutta

After twenty years of hiding and being alone Helen decided to make connections with the human race once more. The gut feeling told her she should go to Calcutta and she hadn't questioned it. The land was full of dying souls and they would need her help.

When she entered Calcutta she forced herself to take a deep breath. The natural features of Calcutta may be beautiful, but she did smell so much misery, frustration, and fear. This sharp contrast could break anyone's heart.

The twilight sky was a beautiful deep shade of purple and blue. The stars are twinkling softly and the lights from buildings are shining brightly with a crisp, gold hue. However, Helen tried to take no notice of the hypnotizing view as she jogged to the task at hand. She can feel the clock ticking and she sprinted even harder without gasping for breath or breaking a sweat.

Ten minutes later she was in front of a drab tent and knew this is where she needed to be. She moved the flap and entered. A doctor in his late twenties was hovering over a sick and crazed boy who kept flinging his arms and screaming. The young man looked at Helen with brown eyes that screamed for help. "Miss, could you please hold this kid down while I fetch a syringe?! I can't get him to stay calm!"

Helen nodded instead of answering because she didn't know how she would sound after twenty years of not uttering a word.

"Great!" the man shouted. The man shoved the screaming boy in Helen's arms and dashed away for the medication.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh…" the boy suddenly quieted as he listened to Helen…singing the same song his mother sang to him as a baby… _"How does she know my song?"_ the boy thought to himself.

"Are you alright?" Helen finally spoke. "What caused you to scream so much?"

"I have dreams…of a giant snake rising from that ocean," the boy pointed in the direction of the waters. "It was going to eat us and squeeze the world."

Helen felt an unexplainable alarm in her, but it quickly went away as tried to find why she felt it. "Do you know what you need?" Helen asked him. The boy shook his head. "You need a hero. You can be a hero by showing those monsters what kindness means, because even monsters have nightmares."

The boy gave her a confused look. "How will that help me?"

Helen showed a look in her eyes of a twenty year old memory that will forever haunt her. "If you also kill, then you are no better than that monster."


	3. Chapter 2: Introductions

**Chapter 2: Introductions**

The young doctor finally arrived. "Is everything ok?" he quickly asked and saw the boy sleeping peacefully with Helen sitting next to him.

She looked up at the man with the sedate and said with a smile, "I'm great with children."

"How the heck-" the man suddenly stopped. "I'm sorry, but I've worked on him for two weeks and now he's calm…"

"I can have a motherly way with children, I suppose…" Helen trailed off, then stood up. "I guess I should be leaving. I…don't really know why I was brought here."

"Oh, wait," the man hesitated. "Let me get you a rental or something…I've had such a hard time with the kid and I just want to show my gratitude." The man blushed lightly.

Helen suddenly looked at the floor in shyness at his kindness. "Sure, that's lovely..." _I've never driven a car before, but how hard can it be?_

"Let me take you up to the rental. My name is Doctor Smith, by the way." He held up his hand to Helen as she prayed he wouldn't be suspicious of her cold body temperature in the warm summer climate. "I'm Helen Nocton."

Author's Note: Hello! Sorry if I'm confusing you guys about my OC! Don't worry, everything will be explained as more chapters are posted. I give more hints about Helen's powers and abilities and eventually her real identity would be revealed! I'll try to post as often as I can and I hope you guys enjoy this! If you have anything helpful to offer about the way I write or if you have spotted a mistake, then feel free to let me know :)


	4. Chapter 3: False Identity

**Chapter Three: A Secret Revealed**

As the couple headed to the wooden building children were running and giggling. Helen couldn't help but smile at them.

"Dr. Smith… That's not your real name, is it?"

'Dr. Smith' looked shocked as he whipped his head to face me. "How did you know…?"

"I have great lying-detector senses." Helen smirked, but really she heard his brief erratic heart beating when he mentioned his name and she guessed he was covering something. "But you don't have to tell me your real name. I'll be out of your hair and we'll go our separate ways."

Dr. Smith looked at her with slight suspicion. "Is your name real? I've never heard of Nocton before."

"I actually handpicked that name for myself. It's the only ID I've got. I thought Nocton would be something that people would remember," Helen said truthfully, knowing she would be in her hideout for a few years anyways, so she was safe.

The couple reached their destination and Doctor Nameless managed to get a rusty car with a stable engine for Helen to go home in.

"Thanks so much, doctor," Helen said with a smile. The man awkwardly nodded as Helen hesitantly eyed the vehicle.

"You place the key in that slot by the wheel," the doctor helpfully said. Helen couldn't meet his eyes as she found the slot and placed the key in. Then she experimented with the pedals and found which was the break and accelerator, but she frightened all the pedestrians. After a few miles outside Calcutta she decided she hated cars and simply ran the thousand miles to her home.


	5. Chapter 4: Helen's First Visit

**Chapter Four: Helen's First Visitor**

Nick Fury walked confidently but slowly to the mouth of an abandoned cave in Transylvania. The mouth of the cave was narrow, but he managed to squeeze in. He kept walking through the dark and damp environment until he heard music. He kept following until he saw a door. Fury eyed it sharply and wearily before walking forward. Halfway through the door opened and revealed a girl, looking no more than sixteen, pale, shoulder-length dark hair, and blue (or green?) eyes.

The girl eyed the man's strange attire-long trench coat and an eye patch-and replied casually, "Hi, what can I do for you?"

"Not just for me," replied Fury, "but for humanity."

Realizing how serious the man was, the girl stepped aside. "Wow, that's a memorable greeting. Come in."Fury walked in and observed a much larger area full of shelves and shelves of books and a lab desk in the middle. An unmade bed was laid to the side. "I apologize for the mess, I wasn't expecting company." She said this with a monotone. "Who are you?" she asked.

Fury set down a case he had been carrying on the only clear spot on the lab table full of test tubes and petri dishes full of molds of different colors. "My name is Nick Fury, Director of an agency named S.H.I.E.L.D. I am requesting you, Helen Nocton, aka the Dark Angel, as part of the Avengers Initiative. I am recruiting a team of heroes to-"

"Mr. Fury," she interrupted. "Don't go any further. Heroes? I know I will only be put on the sidelines unless you need me to diffuse a bomb or whatever. No one will ever trust me. Besides, I like working alone."

"Ms. Nocton, I really cannot accept that no unless you have thought it through." Fury opened the case and pulled out a file, setting it down on the table in front of Helen. "I am recruiting anyone with special gifts simply to protect people who can't do what you can do."

Helen smiled a humorless smile. "I don't like this. You just need a dead body as protection."

"Your heart might not beat, but you have remarkable healing powers and expertise on tracking radiation."

Helen gave a pause. "How did you know about my radiation research?"

Nick Fury gave a blank stare. "If you publish information that surpasses even the most highly valued radiation scientist, chances are people would like to know who you are."

Helen took this moment to not only feel really dumb about how she passes time alone (what else could she do?! Lay in a tomb for all eternity?) to also feel another gut feeling inside of her told her she should take the mission. But she was not going to let another gut feeling rule over her again….not like last time.

"You do know how I feel about blood, right? You cannot have anyone get even a paper cut if I'm very stressed."

"Then I hope you'll be hungry on the battlefield before that happens." On that last sentence, Fury vanished.

**Author's**** Note**NO SHE'S NOT A VAMPIRE! But I did add some vampiric traits to her for reasons that will be explained as chapters start to get more exciting. I am also working on a story about my OC that gives the reason why she lost her memories and why she lives alone and what happened 20 years before this story took place. I just wanted to publish the Avengers story first because I wanted to get some attention to her here first. I hope you guys are not too confused or anything! I don't own the Avengers, just my OC!


	6. Chapter 5: At the Meeting Site

**Chapter Five: At the Meeting Site**

Helen came out of the car, wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt, jeans, and a purple jacket, hoping colors will help appeal her for the first impression before going back to her regular drab colors. She also was wearing dark sunglasses she made herself because after twenty years of dim lighting she was not used to the intense glare of the sun that was shining down on her now.

She walked around until she caught sight of a red-haired woman and three men. To Helen's surprise one of the men standing next to a man with a SHIELD badge on the front of his suit was the 'Doctor Smith' she met in Calcutta.

The SHIELD agent noticed her and walked up to her with his hand extended. "Hello, I'm Agent Coulson. You are Helen Nocton?"

"Yes, that me," she said as she felt Dr. Smith's eyes on her face.

Agent Coulson turned her attention to a buff blond man. "This is Steve Rogers, also known as-"

"Captain America?" Awe filled her voice. She eagerly and respectfully shook Steve's hand. "I thought you died in that plane crash. I'm very pleased you survived, sir."

A smile formed on his face. "Thanks, it's good to be alive."

"I'll bet," she replied with a smirk.

Agent Coulson's slight panic shown on his face and he immediately turned her attention to the other the man with brown hair and glasses. "This is Doctor Bruce Banner, who you will be helping with tracking the Tesseract," he gestured to the man.

Helen's eyes widened again. "So that's your real name… No wonder you didn't want to mention it. I'm sorry they caught you."

"No worries, they apparently have always been watching me," he replied dryly, hinting that he didn't appreciate that fact. Bruce eyed her as the red haired woman came forward with her hand out.

"Natasha Romanoff," she introduced herself.

"Pleased to meet you," Helen replied, taking the woman's hand.

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked with anticipation and wonder.

Bruce gave a sarcastic chuckle. "Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized, metal container?"

The "submarine" turned out to be a hellicarrier. "Oh, this is much worse." Banner said.

Helen Nocton went for it. "We only live once, doctor." She smiled when he saw Romanoff and Coulson are looking like they don't know what to do. Helen simply walked to the entrance to the helicopter.

Agent Coulson immediately turned to Steve and Bruce. "Gentlemen, before you get used to her, she has a…very special condition."

"Then she's perfect for our club," Bruce replied drily.

"You don't understand," Coulson persisted. "She…is not alive."

Steve's brow furrowed. "You mean she's…undead?"

"That's right. She was named the Dark Angel because she knows when someone is going to die and she decides if they even should die. You know that big monster in New York twenty years ago? She summoned it straight from the earth."

"Basically, gentlemen" Natasha interrupted to the dumbfounded men. "We have no idea how powerful she is, so don't get her angry."


	7. Chapter 6: Feeling Awkward

**Chapter Six: Feeling Awkward**

When the heroes were inside they were amazed by the immense space and activity of the agents working in front of their computers. Everywhere Helen looked she saw a guard looking straight ahead with an unreadable expression, but she did feel their eyes on her. She tweaked on her sunglasses and crossed her arms and walked to where there was an empty table, feeling awkward about not doing anything besides standing.

Fury stood in the middle of the room, giving out orders to "put up the reflective shields." When that seemed done he walked over to them.

"Gentlemen. And lady," he acknowledged. Steve went up to Fury and wordlessly gave him five bucks. Helen's brow furrowed, but decided it wasn't important as Fury tucked the money in his coat. He walked over to Bruce and Helen.

"Thank you for coming, Dr. Banner and Ms. Nocton," Fury said as he shook their hands.

Helen smiled tightly while Bruce replied, "Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh…how long are we staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."

"Where are you on that?" Helen asked anxiously.

Fury turned to Agent Coulson to explain. "We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

"That's still not gonna find them in time," Natasha interjected.

"You have to narrow the field." Bruce told them.

"How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Helen asked Fury.

"How many are there?" Fury counter-questioned.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays." Bruce advised.

"We can rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places." Helen concluded.

"Do you have somewhere for us to work?" Bruce asked.

Fury turned to Natasha. "Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner and Ms. Nocton to their laboratory, please."

The red-head nodded and led them down a hall. "You two are gonna love it. We got all the toys."


	8. Chapter 7: Questions

**Chapter** **Seven: Questions**

After Natasha left them to do their work Bruce and Helen got busy organizing and trying out the new equipment. Helen had taken her sunglasses off when she asked Bruce politely to dim the lights. They were mostly silent and only spoke when reporting new data. Soon, however, nothing was happening and both researchers were bored. Bruce started a conversation.

"So, Ms. Nocton, where did do you learn on how to track radiation?" he asked, keeping his eyes on a screen in front of him.

"Call me Helen. Once I got settled in my new home I logged up a computer and I signed up to take a few courses in high studies of science. I don't sleep…very well…so instead it gave me something to do for the nights. I occasionally published some of my works on the internet."

"I wish I could have looked over your work, but there was no internet in Calcutta."

Helen chuckled. "That's okay." She said simply.

Bruce paused and looked as if he was about to ask something else, but looked away. Helen caught the look. "I know scientists are always curious about new things. If you have any questions about me feel free to spill. I've heard all about you." she said.

"I was going to ask how old you are," Bruce admitted with an apologetic look. "But you don't have to answer."

"I came here almost twenty years ago and I'm sixteen-ish, so I am technically thirty-six-ish years old."

Bruce chuckled nervously. "Wow…although you look like you could be seventeen, or even eighteen. No worries about hair loss."

Helen chuckled. "Can I ask you a question? It's been on my mind since I heard about you."

"Alright, to play fair," he looked warily at her, no screen in front of him.

"When you turn into the Other Guy," Helen started slowly, "how do you not rip your pants? How do they stay fit?"

Bruce openly laughed, caught by surprised. "That's your question?"

Helen smiled. "It just boggles my mind. Do you use some special stretchy material?"

Bruce chuckled again. "No, no, just luck, I guess, just luck."

"Then you have quite a lot of luck, mister."

"Na, not so much," he said quietly to himself, looking back at the screen.

Helen heard it and responded lightly. "Don't worry, Doctor, you're not alone." The she added softly, "Not to sound corny, but we've all got demons in us."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Eight: Somebody I Used to Know**

The sound of marching feet earned the attention of the two scientists from their gamma search. Armed men were surrounding another man dressed in a strange green wardrobe, his long dark hair slicked back from his colorless face. The green man peered into the window of their laboratory. The man looked at Bruce first before looking directly into Helen's eyes. Helen felt an unexpected pang in her as she looked into his eyes, almost as if she…recognized the enemy.

The two researchers looked at each other, feeling uneasy about the situation as Loki walked away.

Five minutes later Agent Romanoff came in. Both scientists looked up, seeing the red-head looking at Helen's pale face. "Loki has been caught and locked up. He insists on meeting you, Ms. Nocton."

"Did he give a reason why," Helen said as she wondered why the enemy was curious about her.

"He says he knows something about your past," Romanoff said. "If we get him to talk, then maybe he will slip something about his plan."

Helen stilled in surprise before she grasped her sunglasses and put them on. "Two very good reasons."

Natasha led Helen straight to a room containing a glass dome cage containing Loki.

Helen's mind prickled. _He looks like someone I used to know…_. Her thought trailed off as she saw him smiling in amusement. His gaze turned to Natasha, who was still present. The red-head took the hint and left.

"So, you're the Dark Angel," Loki marveled in a smooth voice as he stared at her. "You don't look as fierce as what I've been told."

"Nice to meet you too," Helen quipped.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?" he drawled.

Helen's brow furrowed. "I haven't seen you before until now. How do you know me?"

"We'll say I've known you since you were born," Loki said vaguely.

"Is that all you're going to offer up?"

Loki smirked. "I have much more, but knowledge usually comes at a price."

Helen's eyes trailed along the cage, noticing every detail before trailing to where the controls were next to her. Her attention was caught by a big red button. Not needing any more information about what the button does she walked over to it.

"According to Norse mythology, you're the God of Mischief, so I'm assuming you like games. You seem to be familiar with me, so you should know how I loathe being toyed." She said this slowly and clearly, eyeing the button to make sure Loki got the message.

Loki tilted his head in thoughtfulness. "You need me alive to know my plan."

"I work alone. I don't care if I piss off Nick Fury or Thor if they are the only ones in the way of what I want. If I press this button I'll still locate the Tesseract and find out who I am. Plus, we won't have to worry about you causing more havoc if you're dead. Do you understand the game?"

Loki looked slightly irritated by this and stonily replied, "How well-informed are you on Norse mythology?"

"Very well-informed, actually," Helen replied. "Perhaps I read a lot on it before I lost my memories."

"Hmmmm," Loki glanced down in thoughtfulness. "Did it ever feel like you were…part of the myths and legends?"

Helen quickly considered this. "No… Where are you going with this?"

"You have the same eye color as I… the same blue that can be mistaken for green."

Loki smirked as he watched Helen slowly comprehend what he said.

"Father and daughter?" Helen asked in disbelief. "You can't honestly think I'll believe I'm part of legends, never mind that we're related."

"Then why are we talking in our native language?" Loki sneered.

Helen stood stock still.

Loki's eyes flashed in triumphant. "Hela of Niflheim. You were such a cankerous old woman hell-bent on overthrowing Odin to take over Asgard ever since that All-Father banned you to the barren Niflheim. Odin stopped you before you succeeded, banned you to earth, which you hit with a mighty bang, and you regenerated into the feeble body you possess now. But you were very feared and impressively powerful. You still are. I can give your memories back to you if you would join me. Let's both rise out of the darkness and be better than anyone.

Helen backed away from the controls. "I work alone and I know you do too. Have a good day." Helen turned to leave, but Loki's voice stopped her.

"You think you work alone, but you are being toyed by the people you teamed with. Look up _Project Advancement _on this craft's database and when you realize the people you are loyal to are utterly vile and worthless, I will receive you with open arms."

Helen forcibly breathed to steady the threatening stirrings inside of her as she left.


End file.
